The present invention relates to a new and improved cleaning apparatus for cleaning a glass lining or cover which laterally covers the support structure of a passenger conveying means like an escalator or a passenger conveying belt or moving walkway.
For architectural reasons, in recent times glass linings not only are contemplated and constructed for the balustrades or hand rail structures, but increasingly are also contemplated and partially also constructed for laterally covering the support structure of passenger conveying means, such as escalators. A main problem of such construction exists with respect to cleaning in particular the inner surfaces of the glass lining. It has been found that specifically these inner surfaces tend to be rather more strongly soiled than the outer surfaces. The dust and dirt which is wiped off the shoes of passengers onto the surfaces of the tread-plates on the steps of an escalator at least partially arrives at the interior of the escalator. Air circulation is generated in the interior of the escalator by the circulating conveyor and, as a result thereof, dust particles are also deposited at the inner lateral surfaces of the glass lining. For this reason these surfaces must be periodically cleaned.
Hitherto this problem has been solved for the small number of passenger conveying means, like escalators, in which the support structures are covered by glass linings or covers, by mounting the individual glass plates such as to be dismountable or to be folded upwardly or downwardly for the cleaning operation. It is a great disadvantage of this construction that the access to the inclined side members of an escalator which interconnects two floors is very difficult. Such access is especially rendered nearly impossible without any additional scaffolding when a number of escalators are arranged on top of each other and large floor gaps are provided in the regions of the floors. When two escalators are crosswisely arranged in juxtaposition, the access to the central glass plates which are directly confronting each other is still more difficult and the upward or downward folding of the glass plates for cleaning their inner surfaces is totally impossible. Additionally, there prevail great risks of accidents to which the cleaning personnel is exposed during the cleaning operations, and last but not least, there is also the increased danger of glass breakage.